130 – Music: “Sunday Toasted” by Zinn

It’s not every day that I meet someone from outside of California, but since January of this year, it happens at least twice a week.

My husband, Lucas, as you know by now, is a music producer, and we now live in Los Angeles, California. Our house has a constant flow of people coming through it because the music studio is attached to the main house. So as a result, I’ve been fortunate to meet talented songwriters and artists from around the United States. How perfect, right? At least 3 to 4 times a week I get to sit down for lunch or dinner with these house guests and hear their stories. Stories about the cities they’re from, the states they’re from; what they love and hate about where they grew up. And so far this year, we’ve had dinner guests from over 15 different states. This blows my mind.

Sometimes I forget how lucky this situation is, considering this podcast is all about the United States, the language and culture of the United States. And what’s funny about music is it’s also about language and culture, right? Most of the people coming over are in their early twenties or mid-twenties. They’re aware of what words are cool, what new slang words are, they know what’s happening in pop culture, what sorts of storylines are cool and interesting, and I love that. This podcast and the music coming out of my husband’s studio go hand in hand.

There’s been numerous times where Lucas plays a song for the first time for me, and I think, Oh, there’s so many good vocabulary words in here and just cultural references that would be so wonderful to talk about. And that’s what we’re going to be doing in today’s episode.

So today we’ll be going through a song called Sunday Toasted. In it, you will learn many slang words, expressions and cultural references that will give you an image of a great summer day in the South. It was recently released by a new artist named Zinn. Z-I-N- N. Zinn is originally from Mississippi, and one of the other songwriters who made this with Lucas is from Alabama. Lucas produced the song.

So I love this song for many reasons. First of all, it’s got a good melody and a great hook. Second of all, it was released by Zinn, who is a friend of ours and is a black country artist. I want you to take a minute to look at the top of the charts in country music in the US, it’s dominated by white males in cowboy hats. I love that Zinn is breaking the stereotype and also mixing a bit of R&B with country. It’s fresh, it’s cool, it’s new.

And another reason why I love this song is because it’s Lucas’s first song released in English. So for those of you who have asked me about his songs in English, this is the first one you can listen to. There will also be many more coming out this year. That is for sure.

We’ll break down the song "Sunday Toasted" into its parts for you to better understand it. I’ll read through each line carefully explaining what is being said.

If you want to follow along as we go through this text, be sure to check out the episode notes (or see below). There, you’ll find the full lyrics as well as a link to the song.

Without any further ado, let’s get into it. 

The full transcript, Mp3, transcript reader to work on pronunciation and quiz can be found in Season 3.